Stephanie says, "This week I'm dining on Gingerbread Men ... and remembering how much fun I had making and decorating them with my Grandma (the strip of gingham is in honor of our festive Christmas Apron). I created my own polka dot background using a Hero Arts Ink Dauber (more details on my blog) ... bring on the Christmas baking."

Lauren says, "I'm dining on hot cocoa-- my favorite-- with some peppermint candy on the side! The current sketch at Stuck On U Sketches was exactly the jump start my design needed. It's quite a fun coincidence that putting the "Happy Holidays" sentiment just below the Santa journaling card, and clustering those on the sketch's strong horizontal line, kind of makes it look like Santa is emerging from a particularly festive and well decorated chimney!" :)

Friday, November 21, 2014

This week's prompt is all about the Christmas Feast ... we're asking you to create a holiday card which features food or drink of some sort... candy canes, gingerbread men, sugar
plums, christmas cookies and hot chocolate, or the Grinch carving the roast beast ... whatever yummy foods and drinks mean Christmas to you.

Lauren says,"For me, at Christmas time... or the rest of the year... when you say, "treats" i think, "SWEETS"; this is true in both art and life! :) So when I realize I have a beautifully realistic (but made of lightweight plastic) candy cane AND some lovingly hoarded Hambly Christmas paper, I'm all set to make a food-related holiday card! Especially if Cardabilities Sketch #111 is particularly awesome... which it is!"

Stephanie says, "This card is an example of what happens when my husband and I design a card together. I asked him for ideas for this prompt, and he kept singing "O' Christmas Corn" ... and thus this design was born. Since we live in Iowa, I have a variety of corn stamps ... so I colored my corn stalk with Spectrum Noir markers (GB3, GB4, DG1 & DG2) and then decorated it for the holidays with sequin ornaments and bling for the lights Every corn field needs a few Christmas critters, a star & some presents ... and of course our typed Christmas lyrics."

Whether you favor candy or corn... or anything delicious that falls in between... have fun making your "Christmas Feast" card and link it up here by 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, December 3rd. Keyword for galleris and flickr is JB:14:24.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

There were soooooooooooooo many amazing cards this time, we are nearly overwhelmed (but in a good way!) by your talent and creativity. If you haven't checked out all the lovely entries, please give yourself the treat of scrolling down to the "Great Outdoors" gallery and reveling in the blizzard (again... in a GOOD way, lol!) of inspiration your fellow belles have brewed up. Meanwhile, here are a few cards that made us feel especially delighted:

...not only constructed a jaw-droppingly lovely and detailed holiday landscape, she is donating this and many of her other Christmas greetings to a very cool non-profit group called the "I Feel the Love Project" which sends cards to hospitalized children. Now that *REALLY* puts the "Great" in "Great Outdoors"! ♥ (You can read their FAQ here!)

...already impressed the heck out of us by creating this incredibly tiny and totally beautiful snow scene; but then we found out the whole thing is constructed in a discarded cheese container??! Holy wow! (WHY didn't WE think of that, eh??!)

...made this amazing dimensional shadowbox card that would be a feat of engineering even if it wasn't also incredibly beautiful... which... it IS!(She claims it was easy to make; but we think she's just being modest!)

Many thanks to every single one of you who shared your gorgeous work with us! We'll be back at midnight to kick off the last prompt of the year(can you BELIEVE it?!) with some cards we hope will be a feast for your eyes! ♥

Shanna says, "Over the last couple of winters, I have spent a significant amount of time in the great outdoors learning to RIDE! There have been bumps and bruises (thank goodness for helmets), sore muscles (remind me to tell you about the time I couldn't lift my leg high enough to put my sock on!), massage therapy, physiotherapy (for an injury sustained from trying to catch myself from falling yet again!), and LOTS and LOTS of soaks in a tub containing epsom salts. Can you say mid-life crisis?!?! I can't explain wanting to learn to snowboard at 30-something any other way! In the end though, I can't explain how very gratifying it was to finally get it! Anyhow...a few weeks ago I got my hands on a new winter sports themed stamp/die set from Simon Says Stamp and was itching to play. This was the perfect opportunity to try out my new snowboard dies! The snow is falling here in Canada, it won't be long until we can get geared up and hit the slopes!"

Lauren says, "I was inspired by the current photo and sketch from Fusion Card Challenge, "Embossed Ombre". I combined part of a freebie Christmas card, a page from an old Ideals magazine, and a strategically trimmed piece of patterned paper... all in shades of blue with snowy trees; then added a tree diecut from layers of lacy doily as a finishing touch."

Friday, November 7, 2014

This fortnight's prompt is the rather brilliant idea of our lovely guest star and fellow belle Shanna Cameron Picard, whose outdoorsy family loves winter sports and other fresh air pursuits. Shanna has wonderful childhood memories of being outside, as well, so when she suggested making holiday cards with an outdoor setting, and we realized we've NEVER used this theme before, we said, "Yes, please!" as quickly as possible, and signed her up to come join us. We've got some pretty good examples to share with you, but first let's meet Shanna:

"Besides the obvious papercrafting stuff, i love to read, garden, hike in summer/fall, ski & snowboard in winter and do yoga regularly. I consider almost anything that involves time spent with my boys outdoors to be time well spent. I am one of those people who wants to try everthing but am always working to find balance in life. My day job involves working with children who are blind or living with vision loss and requires frequent travel throughout Northwestern ON. The travel can make life very busy, but i LOVE what i do. I consider it my life work rather than simply a job."

Did we mention that she also makes incredibly lovely cards? And we can prove it, too... see?

Shanna's Card

Shanna says, "I had been wanting to try my hand at creating a collage-style card and this seemed like the perfect opportunity since I was hoping to incorporate a number of things on just one card. I have many fond memories of time spent in the great outdoors growing up and tried to portray some of them here. When I was a little girl, we sometimes went hunting for a tree the old-fashioned way, by tromping through the bush until we found one that was just right, no need for tree lots in the country - hence the trees and snowflakes. We all learned to skate shortly after learning to walk, whether it was at the local rink or on the tiny pond in the pasture - so I had to add the silhouette of the skaters. The overall vintage feel of the card reminds me of Christmases when I was a small girl when we would drive the country roads to Nana & Papa's house to spend most of Christmas day with family in their big old house - warm & cozy memories!"

Lauren says, "When I first started thinking about this theme, I went looking for an image in my vintage stash that showed a snow-covered cabin in the woods or maybe Santa's workshop at the North Pole, but then I came across this gorgeous October Afternoon Holiday Style paper and it occurred to me that there's just as much Christmas Spirit... (and just as much OUTDOORS, for that matter)... in the city as the country, so I built my card around this bustling urban scene using the current Retro Sketch!"

So whether your ideal outdoor holiday scene is a snowy forest, sparkling city lights, or Santa relaxing on a sandy beach under a palm tree, add that to your next card and link it up right here before 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, November 19th! Keyword for galleries and flickr is JB:14:23.

jingling all the way!

About Us

calling all ♥JINGLE BELLES♥!

do you have a great idea for a prompt? have you always wanted to design a card sketch? we want to make this a fun year-long GROUP project, so feel free to contribute your (kind & constructive) thoughts any time to stef and lauren: jinglebellesrock@hotmail.com